Wednesday, June 7, 2017

June 2017 Wrestling Thoughts

I was so happy to see Samoa Joe win the "Fatal Five Way" match at the WWE Extreme Rules event last Sunday. That's a guy who has really paid his dues and is super deserving of his chance at the top.Joe is one of the early stars of Ring of Honor, and was one of the most under-used stars in the history of Impact Wrestling's 15-year life. He was totally on fire as the unstoppable bad ass during his stint as NXT Champion.He will match up well in his title match against Brock Lesnar. Joe is legit tough and looks menacing. This match in about a month or so should be a great brawl. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a suplex or two.* * *If you scour the archives of the blog here, you'll find a few complimentary posts about Austin Aries back in his Impact Wrestling days. I've always been a fan of his, and I was happy to see him reach the top in Impact, and even happier to see how he's succeeding in WWE.While I do think he should have won the Cruiserweight Championship as the culmination of his feud with Neville, I am okay with him coming up short. Neville has been on a totally different level since winning the title. The "Neville Level," as he was referred to it on television. The "King of the Cruiserweights" is possibly the top bad guy in all of WWE right now.And I'm a fan of the future of Aries. He will recover from this, eat a banana, and move on to the next obstacle in his path.* * *Noam Dar is going to be a star in WWE one day. Well, he already is, but he'll eventually break out as more than mid-card comedy act. The reason why that's working for him, and why he hasn't turned into a less-funny Santino Marella, is because he's still treated as a threat inside the ring. That's the key. He can be funny and goofy and pronounce Alicia Fox's name as "Alicia Fucks" due to this thick Scottish accent, but he's still a talented wrestler and that point isn't lost on the WWE audience.He's only 23, so he has plenty of time to turn into a star.* * *Bobby Roode has truly been a "Glorious" champion in NXT. I've watched Roode since his Impact Wrestling days in 2004, became a huge fan of his around 2008, and he's another guy that I've enjoyed being able to see enjoy the fruits of his labors.I feel that he will ultimately lose the championship to Roderick Strong, as that seems to be the long-term direction, but I see only good things in the future for Roode.